The recent papal declaration, Fiducia supplicans,  explains Pope Francis’ permission for priests blessing same sex couples and explores the meaning of blessings. The issue goes beyond priests and same sex marriage, the declaration points out. To understand it we need to understand the God of Blessing.

“The great blessing of God is Jesus Christ. He is the great gift of God, his own Son. He is a blessing for all humanity, a blessing that has saved us all. He is the Eternal Word, with whom the Father blessed us ‘while we were still sinners’ (Rom. 5:8), as St. Paul says. He is the Word made flesh, offered for us on the cross.” (Pope Francis)

In the light of God who blesses, the declaration asks us to broaden and enrich our understanding of blessing. 

We bless in our liturgy, a “blessing  that requires what is blessed be conformed to God’s will, as expressed in the teachings of the Church… For this reason, since the Church has always considered only those sexual relations that are lived out within marriage to be morally licit, the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.”

Yet blessings go beyond liturgy and the moral conditions required for receiving  sacraments. Limiting blessings to the liturgy limits the  unconditional power of God’s love at the heart of blessing, according to the pope. We should not “lose pastoral charity, which should permeate all our decisions and attitudes” and avoid being “judges who only deny, reject, and exclude.” (12,13)

The papal declaration explores the variety of blessings in the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament God blesses and people respond: “ Melchizedek, King of Salem, blesses Abram (cf. Gen. 14:19); Rebekah is blessed by family members just before she becomes the bride of Isaac (cf. Gen. 24:60), who, in turn, blesses his son, Jacob (cf. Gen. 27:27). Jacob blesses Pharaoh (cf. Gen. 47:10), his own grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. Gen. 48:20), and his twelve sons (cf. Gen. 49:28). Moses and Aaron bless the community (cf. Ex. 39:43; Lev. 9:22). The heads of households bless their children at weddings, before embarking on a journey, and in the imminence of death. These blessings, accordingly, appear to be a superabundant and unconditional gift.”

In the New Testament “Jesus blessed children: And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them” (Mk. 10:16). And Jesus’ earthly journey will end precisely with a final blessing reserved for the Eleven, shortly before he ascends to the Father: “And lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven” (Lk. 24:50-51). The last image of  Jesus on earth is that of his hands raised in the act of blessing.”

The papal declaration looks to the blessings described in the scriptures offered to all without requiring anything. “It is God who blesses. From the first pages of the Bible, there is a continual repetition of blessings. God blesses, but humans also give blessings, and soon it turns out that the blessing possesses a special power, which accompanies those who receive it throughout their lives, and disposes man’s heart to be changed by God.

So we are more important to God than all the sins we can commit because he is father, he is mother, he is pure love, he has blessed us forever. And he will never stop blessing us.

It is a powerful experience to read these biblical texts of blessing in a prison or in a rehabilitation group. To make those people feel that they are still blessed, notwithstanding their serious mistakes, that their heavenly Father continues to will their good and to hope that they will ultimately open themselves to the good. Even if their closest relatives have abandoned them, because they now judge them to be irredeemable, God always sees them as his children.”

The papal declaration offers priests the opportunity to bless same sex unions with a devotional, not liturgical blessing. But they are not the only ones who bless. The whole church is called to bless the world. The declaration calls for all of us to recover our role as children of God who blesses. 

We might start with the simple words from everyday life and everyday prayers. “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  We bless ourselves as individuals. Saint or sinner, we personally look to God for the blessing that comes from the Cross of Christ. “Good bye,” is an old phrase for “God be with you,” a blessing also found in words like “Good night”, “Good day”.  “Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, glory and praise him forever.”  We bless the world before us, human beings like ourselves and all the creatures of the earth. 

Everyday phrases, everyday prayers express a God who blesses.